SonovaMin and Boomslang have some competition. Any cartoon that triggers the always offended, the permanently upset and the luvvies combined has got to be assessed and considered for laughs. Even the guy with the funniest name in NZ, Meng Foon, the Race Relations Commissioner has been triggered by this lighthearted cartoon with its simple play on words, calling it “extremely appalling and distasteful”.
Not to be left out, our PM has also waded into the poo-flinging, saying that she was “horrified” by it. As for those protesting outside the newspaper’s office; they have said that an apology is not enough, they want the paper to hand over $50,000 cash to the Red Cross in Samoa and force all its employees to undergo anti-racism training!
Of course when cartoons are offensive to white people or mock conservatives or right-wing politics (ie most cartoons in NZ papers today), then no one cares, no one loses their job and the very same people beating their chests now have a snigger into their soy lattes.
‘Embarrassed’ Race Relations Commissioner Meng Foon blasts ‘appalling and distasteful’ Samoan measles cartoon
Newshub
Honestly how sad to you have to be to get your knickers in a knot over something as lighthearted as this cartoon? It is a pun, a play on words, one of the simplest and oldest techniques in the book. It is not mean-spirited or racist. Only someone looking to be offended and wanting to shake down a newspaper for $50,000 could possibly make something out of it.
While the cancel culture shitstorm is raging over this quite innocuous cartoon one that could legitimately be called offensive (but isn’t because we on the right believe in freedom of speech and don’t think that we should be protected from being offended) is this swipe at David Seymour for ironically defending freedom of speech.
Where is the outrage from Meng Foon over this cartoon that smears a defender of free speech as an apologist for fascism and racism? Twitter is outraged by Tremain’s cartoon but are almost completely ok with Murdoch’s.
In this case, the cartoonist Murdoch is protected from attack for two reasons.
- Because of her personal politics (she is a Marxist)
2. Because she is not an old white man.
Out in the wilds of woke Twitter, with zero self-awareness, there are people who are accusing Tremain of being sexist and racist at the same time as calling for him to be fired because he is white, old and a man!
Not everyone on Twitter though is blind to the glaring double standards.
What really sickened me though about the Twitter pile in was comedian Raybon Kan putting in the boot. Cancel Culture is already impacting on comedy and while he may think that his friendship with Meng Foon will save him he just needs to offend the wrong person and he is one Twitter shit storm away from being cancelled from comedy.
This is exactly why free speech should be protected for everybody and not just those you agree with. If a cartoon as harmless as Tremain’s one can cost him his job, then no joke, no political cartoon and no opinion piece are safe from the perpetually offended.
Sharon Murdoch is safe for now but her time will come. Once the Left has succeeded in removing all the old white males from their jobs as cartoonists then they will come for her. She won’t be young enough, brown enough or woke enough to escape them.